This Sunday the celebrations of the Puerto Rican community are celebrated in the Big Apple, and while the traditional Puerto Rican Parade It will be done with a virtual event, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Puerto Ricans in New York make an urgent call not to be forgotten, after the ravages that the coronavirus brought.
Walking along the 3rd Avenue in popular East Harlem, where many Puerto Ricans from Manhattan still live, Madison Soto, who has lived in the city since the late 1990s, assured with disappointment that what is now It is “a rice with cu ..”, for which he demanded relief actions.
“I don’t like to go around complaining, but I think that the City and the State have not cared about us Puerto Ricans, as they should. It does not bother me that they help people without papers, because they deserve to be given checks, like the ones they are going to give them, but we should also be able to qualify for those additional helps, because we are fired and what is coming is monkey cane (difficult moments)”.
Álex Prieto, born in Ponce, shared the feelings of his countrywoman, and said that although he admits that New York has been gradually emerging on the other side, in Puerto Rican communities Like the one in El Barrio, not only do they feel exacerbated poverty, but also criminality. The Puerto Rican urged the current president and the police to face their needs with immediate measures, and asked the future head of the City not to put them aside.
“We are not well. The fact that there are no longer so many cases of COVID does not mean that we are in perfect condition, and Puerto Ricans, perhaps because we are a hybrid of Americans and Latinos, treat us as second level, ”said the father of the family, criticizing that his neighborhood has become a zone of “drugs and homeless.”
“Here the neighborhood is down. You go out and see people using drugs in the streets, others riding their motorcycles on the sidewalks, homeless people screaming and hitting and nobody does anything. I am especially afraid for my children, ”said the Puerto Rican father. “As a good Puerto Rican, I celebrate life, and I like to have a good attitude and be happy, but with these conditions, I feel like these are not happening in the rich neighborhoods, so they don’t care and if they don’t do anything now, they go to make everything worse ”.
And a few streets from where the 116th Street Festival used to be held, which this year will not be held either, Jose Espada, who claims to have spent more than half of his life in New York, affirms that it hurts him to see many countrymen in harsh conditions.
“Lor more important is that they help the people who suffered so much with this and that he comes with many needs from before, “said the Puerto Rican, while chatting with a couple of friends in a street in El Barrio. “There are many needs here and we cannot celebrate knowing that people are not doing well. You have to help them ”.
And in an annoyed tone, one of Espada’s countrymen showed more his discontent for the afugias for which East Harlem who have lost their jobs to the pandemic have had to go through, and asked that their community be helped.
“They don’t do anything for us now and we need a lot of things, not just an internet parade. That’s not what they have to do now, ”said the man, who turned his back and left. “They have forgotten us and out of nowhere they come here to do nothing for us. There is a lot of hunger and people are without money (money) ”.
Victor Cuevas, owner of the Latino and Puerto Rican t-shirt, record and merchandise store “El Barrio Music Center“, From 115th Street, joined in the bittersweet feeling of the celebration of this 2021.
“People are heartfelt. We are a people rooted in our habits and it pains us to know that this Sunday we will not have a party, that we have to console ourselves with watching an online event. We are not very happy about that ”, commented the businessman.
Cuevas, who has had his store for more than 31 years, said he was concerned about the needs that the COVID pandemic left among his neighbors and Caribbean countrymen, and asked the municipal authorities not to abandon the Puerto Ricans and create aid plans.
“It is enough to go to the corner of 116 or see people walking on the sidewalks to see that there is a lot of need and at our parties the best gift that can be given is to create opportunities for our people. Job opportunities, programs to help or pick up those with drug problems and increased, and opportunities to continue being a strong community, “said the businessman, warning that sometimes it seems that “There is no law in El Barrio”.
Marlon lopez, who laughingly said he was older than the Coquí, one of the most emblematic symbols of Puerto Rico, declared himself more political and after confessing disillusioned with the criminality and lack of income that are noted among Puerto Ricans and their Latino neighbors, said that New York alone will be saved by the next Mayor.
“This is no longer fixed in six months by anyone. We have to wait for the next one to come up, hopefully the Chinese one (Andrew Yang) or the blonde woman (Kathryn García) to bring order with more police officers and jobs, “said the grandfather, urging everyone to go out and vote. “People have to go out and then ask whoever wins to help us.”
Josefina Espeleta, mother of three teenagers and survivor from Hurricane Maria, that hit Puerto Rico in 2017, said, without wanting to sound pessimistic, that this year it will celebrate the Puerto Rican festivities online to prevent hope from dying, but Urged help in recovery plans for Puerto Ricans of the Big Apple that were devastated with this new blow that COVID meant.
“I always like to see things in a positive way, but I think that many, like me, who were just starting to stop with the damage that María did us and that forced us to ask for help here, we are again as if we had fallen a worse storm and I only ask that they do not leave us alone, ”said the former waitress, who has been unemployed since the place where she worked closed last December.
“The good thing is that Puerto Ricans are strong people who like the Phoenix we know how to be reborn from our ashes, But for the celebration to be a real celebration, I would like specific relief programs for our community in these poor neighborhoods, not only for Puerto Ricans, but for everyone, as a characteristic of our people is to think of others as well, ”added the mother. of family.
Details of the 2021 Puerto Rican Parade of June 13
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